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| An American Abroad |
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It's a very exciting day here at Chateau Hugo-Vidal, because Virginia, aka Youngest, is coming home from the Netherlands on winter break! You may recall she got into her dream grad program in The Hague, and has been there since the beginning of September (after kindly taking care of me for a month post-knee replacement.) She didn't come home for Christmas because she wanted to both travel and bring the Million Dollar Cat back with her, so she spent New Year's in Berlin and Vienna before taking the long flight home (Amsterdam to Boston via Reykjavik.)
Having my child at school overseas makes me think of my own experience going to college in London back in '82-'83. Honestly, technology has changed things so much, it feels two different centuries.
Wait - it is two different centuries. Well, you know what I mean. Except for the fact I flew across the Atlantic instead of sailing, I'm pretty sure my time in Europe had more in common with a young woman traveling in 1924 than in 2024. For instance:
Paper tickets. I had my return Christmas time flight when left the US in August, and I lived in terror of that physical ticket somehow getting lost. Of course, I bought Virginia's tickets online, and she's using her Icelandair app to access them (along with weather reports, delay notifications, etc. etc.) At least the paper tickets didn't display ads.
Traveling across Europe. There were flights, obviously, but in the early eighties they were well out of the reach of students. At least, students whose parents had them on a budget. I traveled everywhere via rail, using my Eurailpass. I have no idea what it cost, but boy, it had to have been a bargain considering how many miles I put on it. Virginia, on the other hand, took advantage of one of the many discount airlines and flew to Austria. My nephew is going to university in Athens, and he's flown on every trip he's taken in the past two years. I love me some trains, but I have to admit I could have skipped sitting up all night while going from Rome to Paris.
Speaking of budgets: American Express Traveler's Cheques. Yes, there is a certain romance to the whole "stopping at the American Express office for your mail" thing. But I was convinced I'd lose my wallet (it was always happening in the commercials!) and would suffer the embarrassment of being the Yankee tourist who needed replacements. I wasn't any more organized then than I am now, and thinking back, I'm boggled my parents trusted me with what was essentially a booklet worth $2000. Everything is electronic for Virginia - in fact, she says the Netherlands are close to being cash-free.
Cash! The euro was only a vague idea in some idealist's minds when I was going to school. Every new country I went, I had to stop into a cambio to trade Traveler's Cheques for marks, lira, francs, and pounds. Ans then, of course, at the end of my year abroad, I had a weird assortment of different currencies that always seemed to be just under the amount an American bank would accept.
Of course, possibly the biggest difference is communication. Before my term started in England, I took part in an archaeological dig in Tuscany and then traveled around Italy and southern France for a total of six weeks, during which time I sent exactly zero postcards or letters home. My poor mother! I was better once I had settled into my London lodgings, and wrote a dutiful weekly letter on crinkly onionskin airmail stationery. I called home twice in the fall semester; one for my brother's birthday, and then again when I had to let my parents know I had missed my Christmastime flight from Heathrow to New York. (The conversation went like this - Mom: Hello? Me: Pass the phone to Dad.)
Meanwhile, Virginia texts with me and her siblings almost daily, and we've had loads of video calls using WhatsApp (highly recommended.) I'm so grateful I didn't have to go through what my mom did (plus, I have no doubt Virginia will make her flight home with time to spare.)
There's one thing was was decidedly better back in the day - when I left and when I returned, my folks were waiting for me right by the gate as I came off the plane. (Those of you under the age of 30 or so will find this astonishing.) In 2025, I'll be circling Terminal E, waiting for my daughter to clear customs. But we'll be just as happy reuniting as my parents and I were.
How about you, dear readers? What are your travel memories from a bygone age? And what's better now?
How exciting to have Virginia home for a bit . . . I'm sure it will be wonderful!
ReplyDeleteJulia, does your airport have a cell phone lot? That would save you from endlessly circling the terminal. And how wonderful to have Virginia home for a visit! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI remember all that, Julia and more. In the early 1970's, a friend and I spent the whole summer in Europe, traveling on a Eurail pass, staying in pensionnes, using the book Europe on $10 a Day. This summer, Irwin and I are going to Greece for 2 weeks. Let's just say, "It will be different."
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Virginia's visit. I know you've been so looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteWhat has changed most for me is long-distance calls and the cash thing: When I was a student in college, living in a rooming house, my brother and his wife were in UK and then Germany, and I had to use the pay phone in the hall - a tedious affair of nickels, dimes, quarters, or reversed charges. Flash forward 30 years to when my husband and I started traveling: Traveler's checks. I don't even remember now when those disappeared. It all is so much easier now, for sure.
How happy for you to have all your children home for your late family Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI have never been a traveler. My husband has always traveled extensively. Though I certainly remember the hassle of purchasing traveler's checks, for me the huge change is communication. He used to leave for seven to nine weeks and typically I'd hear from him by postcard from whatever airport he landed at and then... silence. (He was/is? a hobby mountaineer who would be in inaccessible places.)
The worst was the summer of 1992 when he was climbing Denali. I was home with our five year old. At that time there was no television where we live -- the mountains cut off reception and cable didn't stretch seven miles out of town. The NYT arrived days late. And that summer there was a record number of deaths on Denali -- 11, all unidentified by the Times. It was very, very stressful.
Now he can text me from all over the world. (Selden)
Yes, I remember using AMEX traveler's cheques on my solo 2 month trip to Europe in the 1980s. No Euro, so every country had its own currency. I did not have a credit card. And I mailed dozens of postcards to my parents to let them know where I was.
ReplyDeleteNow, I use a WISE card on int'l travel, including when I go to the US. It automatically converts the currency at a much lower rate & no foreign transactions fees than using credit cards.
And yes, my airplane boarding pass is on my phone. I have Air Canada, Porter, United and EVA AIR airline apps. Very handy & the apps send real time msgs about gate changes or delays.
How lovely she'll be home for a bit!
ReplyDeleteYes, my travel experiences were the same as yours, Julia. When I lived (at age 17) in Brazil for a year in 1970, I didn't call home once. Way too expensive for our family, but we used up a heck of a lot of that blue airmail stationery.
Also hitchhiking. I left a tour group when I was in northern Japan alone in 1976 and hitched a ride back down the mountain. Hitchhiked home to CA from Michigan one summer. I don't think anybody does that any more.
Whatsapp is amazing! When I was in Japan last spring I could call Hugh every day, and I can also have video chats with Ida Rose when we're apart for a few weeks. Also in Japan in April I went into a convenience store and got cash from my credit card from a multi-lingual machine (despite all Japan's hi-tech, including the most complicated computer-run toilets, it's very much a cash money economy). All the taxi drivers had little translation devices. Many changes.